elow is the saga of Viktor, a long story. I have included the long version of the story here so that people can get an idea of what can happen, and what steps you can take, if you lose your dog. Viktor was lost twice, so he taught us a lot about catching dogs.

VIKTOR

Viktor is a wonderful little dog who has been let down by the people in his life, including me. Useless Bay Sanctuary volunteers captured Viktor once as he roamed loose for five weeks. After a week in a foster home, Viktor escaped again, and UBS volunteers invested over 200 volunteer hours over seven days to capture him again. Besides keeping Viktor safe, catching him twice was a learning experience.

We first learned of Viktor on September 15th, 2015, when Dina saw him while she was looking for a different dog. Dina lured Viktor within about five feet, with food, but she had to leave for work. Other volunteers came to the vacant lot in Mill Creek quickly, but Viktor sensed that something was up. He bolted at least 10 blocks north. Volunteers searched for hours, but couldn't locate him again. The first volunteers to find him after Dina left said they did not approach him, but I suspect one of them may have tried to get close to him, causing him to bolt. Importantly, Dina took a picture of him when she first saw him, and that helped us in several ways. It enabled us to put up posters for him, asking for more sightings. It helped volunteers know what to look for. Also, because of the picture, we were able to learn that Viktor had escaped from an adoption event in south Everett, for a local rescue. We found out that Viktor started his adventure on August 23rd, 2 miles north of where Dina encountered him. He was a neutered male from a shelter in California, and he had just been transported to Washington on August 22nd. He was about five years old. The rescue was able to provide clearer pictures of him. (We also learned, after a later vet visit and x-rays, that Viktor had a fractured femur at some point prior to coming to Washington. It had healed wrong, and was probably the reason why people noticed him limping some times.)

Because we had clear pictures of him, we were able to recognize him when someone posted on the Lost Dogs of Snohomish County Facebook page about a black dog seen wandering in Lynnwood, miles away from where Dina first saw him. "Found this guy in Lynnwood at 196th and 24th. He won't come to me even for treats. Followed and lost him on a culdesac 202nd Pl NE off of 24 Ave W. Medium sized dog, long curledtail." Dina and I went to that area soon after the reported sighting. We put up dozens of posters at nearby intersections, which generated new sightings of him. Dina and I spent hours working the area, going up and down all the dead ends within five blocks of the last sighting. We used a phone app to show each other our GPS locations the whole time, so that we could cover the area most efficiently without duplicating each other's movements. Because Viktor seemed to always be heading south, we put up dozens of posters south of the last sighting of him. We created a private Facebook page for the search team to use for coordination, and a public Facebook page for Viktor so that anyone could share information. We also posted an ad on craigslist, and posted about Viktor on several Facebook pages for lost dogs. On the 18th, someone posted on a Shoreline Facebook page that Viktor had been sleeping in her front yard. This was south of all the signs we had put up, and about 10 miles away from the point of escape. We were busy at the time, following Jackson around Kirkland, so we couldn't devote much time to searching that area. I did look all around there for a few hours, with no luck. We would later learn that Viktor arrived in the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood on or before September 22nd. Viktor travel 22 miles in a month, and then he hung around Queen Anne Hill for at least 8 days before we caught him.

We received a possible sighting in North Seattle, near the Seattle Golf Club, on September 23rd. We received another call about a dog inMountlake Terrace. In hindsight, this almost definitely was not him. A black dog roamed that area and generated many false sightings. September28th, we got a couple of calls about Viktor. The descriptions matched, so we searched the area, the north slope of Queen Anne Hill, and put updozens of posters. With the posters up, with my number on them, I started receiving at least a dozen calls a day. The typical report would say, "I saw this dog sleeping in someone's yard. I went to see if he needed help or if he was lost, and he took off down the street." His distinctive ears and tail made it easy to verify that the sightings were really him. From the 28th to October 1st, I was just a few minutes behind him most of the time. He roamed an area of about 2 square miles, with a cemetery, woodsy parks and ravines, alleys, and landscaped yards to hide in.

On October 1st, after hours of searching, I got a call that Viktor was just a block away from me, near 2nd Ave North and Howe Street. I gotthere in seconds, but didn't see him. It took me another five minutes to pinpoint him, sitting in someone's yard. I watched him for a bit, to see howhe was acting. He just observed people, and as long as people didn't notice him, he stayed put. When someone spooked him from his resting place, I followed him for half a block to a yard that was about three feet above street level, with a retaining wall. I had Fozzie with me as a Magnet Dog,and I tried walking past Victor with Fozzie on a leash. As we passed him twice, Viktor showed no interest in Fozzie. I put Fozzie back in the car,and then I approached Viktor casually--that is to say, I pretended I did not see him and was just walking by. I dropped some treats behind me. Hechecked out the treats, finding them with his nose. After he ate them, I made another pass and dropped more treats. Eventually, I sat down on thesteps and just tossed him treats, each time a little closer to me. He came within a foot or so. I called for assistance through Facebook and texting,looking for people to keep pedestrians away and keep an eye on Viktor if he took off. I had several ideas for catching him, but I didn't want to trythem until I had assistance. Volunteers said they could help, but it would take them at least 40 minutes to get there. Although I tried to keep Viktorin one place, he wandered off, headed north toward streets where we had previous sightings. Apparently Viktor had regular routes he preferred touse.

I had one of Viktor's Lost Dog posters taped to the back window of my car, so I was driving along with a picture of Viktor while he trotted alongthe sidewalk ahead of me. A teenager walking down the street noticed Viktor, then noticed the poster on my car. He pointed and then startedrunning toward Viktor. I was able to get his attention and ask him not to chase Viktor. All the posters all over Queen Anne, plus the one on my car,said Do Not Chase. People have a hard time following that advice. Viktor settled in a yard at 1st Ave North and Lynn Street. I didn't have any waterwith me, but I thought he might be thirsty from the hot dogs I had been feeding him. I asked a neighbor if I could get a cheap plastic container with some water in it for Viktor, and she came out with a large stainless steel bowl full of water. I told her I would bring it back when I was done. Viktor did appreciate the water. A volunteer, Yolanda, had shown up at that point, and I asked her to keep pedestrians from disturbing Viktor. Shedirected them to cross to the other side of the street. Dina showed up with a humane trap, and we set it up not far from Viktor. He got up and walked past it, just giving it a sniff on the way by.

I followed Viktor on foot. Actually, I walked in front of him, predicting where he would go by the previous sightings. I was right, mostly. WhenViktor wanted to cross a busy street, I went ahead of him and stopped traffic. I hung out with him in the yard at 1st and Queen Anne Boulevardfor a while. I snapped a good picture that showed his whole body and face very clearly, with good light, in case it was needed later. The posters wewere using had an okay picture that was a little dark and hard to see. Viktor wandered down the hill, and Dina hauled the trap around to put it in front of him. He walked past it again. He was probably getting a little full at that point. Alisa brought me hot rotisserie chicken pieces in a cup. Viktor really liked that. Dina set up the trap in a new location. When Viktor started to go the other way, I used the hot, fresh chicken to lead him toward the trap. He got the hang of it, and he followed me right down the sidewalk to the location of the trap at Warren Ave and Raye Street. Many people watched from a distance as Viktor approached the trap. He smelled the large pile of hot chicken in the end of the trap, and he followed the trail of chicken bits right in. When the door closed behind him, he was startled, and he whined a little. Some of the neighbors cheered when Viktor was caught. It happened so fast that Dina was looking away at the moment and didn't get to witness it. Catching Viktor the first time involved at least a hundred volunteer hours from at least 10 volunteers.

I had to get a ride back to my car, many blocks away. Then we loaded Viktor in, inside the trap, and I took him home. I stopped at the pet storealong the way, and got him a harness and a Martingale collar. When we got to my house, I carried the whole trap inside before opening it. Viktorallowed me to touch him or pet him, but he made it clear he would prefer to be left alone. To try to help him relax, I slept on the floor with my backto him, to be as non-threatening as possible. Over the next seven days, I tried various ways to help Viktor relax and remember how to be a normaldog. I tried toys, but he was not interested. He would tolerate my friendly little poodle, but he didn't want to interact at all. He liked food, and couldbe motivated somewhat by treats. He acted depressed, and always seemed to be looking around for a strategy to escape. I walked him on two leashes for safety. I tried to put a GPS unit on him, but I could not get it to work in four days of fiddling with it and contacting tech support. I of course put a scent article in the freezer in case we needed it for the scent trailing dog.

On October 11th, I went into Viktor's room and found that he had escaped through the small cat door. This door must have been a tightsqueeze for Viktor, and I never guessed he would have been able to fit through it. The cat door had been boarded up from the inside and theoutside, and it was covered on the inside by various items stored in front of it. From the inside, there would have been no indication that a cat dooreven existed. Viktor must have smelled air coming through a crack or something. He pushed away the containers in front of the cat door, priedoff the interior board, and pushed out the exterior board. I had anticipated that Viktor would try to escape somehow, but I never thought he would get out through the cat door. Obviously, I underestimated his intelligence and motivation.

Immediately, I contacted UBS board members and posted online that Viktor had escaped. While volunteers came to the area to help, I startedKelsy on the scent trail. Kelsy followed the scent down the driveway, through a neighboring park, in a loop about five blocks across, and back tothe house. Apparently, Viktor hung around the neighborhood a little while before deciding to move on. By that time, the day was getting way toowarm for a search dog to work, unusually warm for mid October, so Kelsy and I had to stop. As it turned out, we would later learn that Viktor wasalready four miles away by that afternoon, so it would have been unlikely that Kelsy and I ever could have caught up to him. When we receivedsightings later, it was always in places where Viktor had been circling and backtracking, creating difficult trails for a scent dog to follow. I always keptKelsy in mind, in case she might be helpful, but posters and volunteers were working better than a search dog would have under those circumstances, given Viktor's behavior and the weather conditions.

Volunteers--Terri, Dina, Dori, Tonja, and Nancy--got posters up all over Burien within a couple of hours. By that time, Viktor was milesoutside of the zone where we put the posters, but we didn't know that at the time. I was sure we would get some sightings, and I had previouscommitments, so I stopped searching after eight hours. On Monday, most volunteers were not available. I spent the day searching by car and on foot, and putting up additional posters. I and others made sure Viktor was on Facebook and craigslist, and local blogs. It was a long, sad day, with no news of Viktor. I felt confident we would eventually get reports of him, based on his previous behavior while roaming five weeks across five cities,but the wait was excruciating. I thought, if anyone would be able to catch a difficult dog, it should be me. I had seven years of training and experience for just such an event. Plus, many experienced volunteers were helping. I kept asking myself, what would I advise someone to do in this situation if this weren't my dog and it wasn't my fault the dog escaped? In such a case, I would always advise the dog's owner to remain calm, don't panic, and keep working on concrete actions. That was the hardest advice to follow because my mind was often clouded by fatigue, guilt, and worry.

On the morning of the 13th, the third day, I was up very early to go out and search. I got a call before dawn that Viktor had been seen in a carportin West Seattle, near Brandon and 36th. A person going to work startled him when she went to get in her car. Fozzie and I got to the area withintwo hours of the sighting. I can't remember if the witness got my number from the West Seattle Blog or from craigslist. I put up posters in the area,and drove around. I got another call of sightings at 10 at Myrtle and 37th. I arrived in just a few minutes, but did not see him. I spent about 10 hours that day looking for Viktor. I received at least a dozen calls, but couldn't catch up to him. Again, using Kelsy didn't seem feasible because of the warm temperatures and all of the backtracking and circling. The evening of the 13th, several volunteers helped me with an Intersection Alert from 4 to 7 PM. We received several reports of sightings from people who pulled over to talk to us, but they were older sightings than the most recent information we had. The sightings were still helpful. For one thing, they confirmed that Viktor traveled far from home very soon after his escape, so catching up to him with the search dog would have been difficult. The sightings also gave us a sense of the pattern of his movements. I'm certain that we raised awareness of Viktor, even if we didn't get any fresh sightings while we were there at the intersection of 35th and Morgan.

The morning of the 14th, I got a call as I was driving to the area. Viktor was seen near 36th and Juneau, not far from the previous sightings. I gotthere in just a couple of minutes, and there he was, trotting down the sidewalk like he was just out for a stroll. I hopped out and tossed pieces of hot dog to him. This caught his attention and brought him right to me. Viktor came right up to me while I was sitting on the ground. I was so relieved to see him again and know he was uninjured. I made a grab for his collar, but it slipped out of my hand when he jerked away with a hurt expression. I was able to get him to come back to me. I called the person who had called me with the sighting, and asked if they had any treats I could have, like tuna or something. They said they would bring something. Then I remembered I had a bag of dog treats in my metal tool box. I kept Viktor close with the treats. He stayed out of reach because I had grabbed at him once. The man who brought treats also brought a fishing net, the kind you scoop a fish out of the water with after you catch it with a fishing pole. I saw what he was thinking. I walked over to him to look at the net. It obviously was not big enough to catch Viktor. The width of the opening was only about two thirds of Viktor's length. I told the man I had experience catching a dog with a similar net, and it was not as easy as you might imagine. Viktor seemed to be getting full, so I stopped with the treats for a while and returned to my car. Help was on the way, and I wanted spotters around when I made the next attempt to get him. The guy with the net lured Viktor over with some food. I thought Viktor would just move on. When I saw that Viktor was moving closer to this person, I went over and asked him a second time not to try the net. He said he was sure it would work. I asked him a third time not to try the net on V. The man whacked Viktor with the net frame, and Viktor took off running south. Linda and Sharon were almost there, so I called and asked them to watch for Viktor to the south. They spotted him and followed him to the park with the water towers, about six blocks south of Juneau. Viktor went under the fence into the area around the water tower that is closed to the public. Linda pointed out that Viktor was inside the fence, possibly trapped. I asked her to give V some space, but she kept moving close to the fence. V wriggled under the fence in another location and took offdown 35th, a relatively busy street. Viktor ran toward some construction workers who made a grab at him, forcing V into traffic on 35th. He wasalmost hit twice as he crossed to the east side of 35th. I actually ran a red light, after carefully looking both ways, in order to keep up with Viktor. I almost had Viktor that morning, and he ran off because people who wanted to help would not listen to what I was telling them. I have seven years experience catching difficult dogs. I have specific training for situations like this. I have LOST PET RESCUE on the back of my jacket, something you don't see every day, and possibly a sign that I have some experience. I spoke to people reasonably and calmly, and they still would not listen to what I said. This is the reason that volunteers are needed who know the game plan and understand that they should not simply act on their own impulses. While it is often helpful when people spontaneously volunteer to help a lost dog, they are much more effective when they can be persuaded to follow instructions. The biggest problem I run into everyday is the attitude of, "I have helped stray dogs before, so obviously I knowwhat I'm doing and don't need advice from you." It was very frustrating, especially in my position of being the lost dog's caretaker in this instance. !We followed Viktor around all day, and fed him lots of treats. When we would lose track of him for a bit, having several volunteers in the area helped us locate him again quickly. Also, knowing his preferences for places to rest helped us know where to look. I found that most people would have walked right by him if they did not know his preferred type of hiding place. Viktor could lie down in tall grass and become invisible from the street. He would hide in the rain garden swales along the streets. He chose places where he had at least two escape routes. Bonnie tried approaching him in a field, and he ran off fairly quickly, possibly because of other people, including me, moving around in the background. Bonnie approached him in another field, and he ran off because he was surprised when he looked up and saw her. Dori lured Viktor to her twice, almost within reach. During one of Dori's attempts to lure Viktor, many people were watching. I had my body turned to the side, and I was holding still, using calming body language. Linda and Sharon were 80 feet away in a car, watching. Three maintenance workers were lined up at the curb, watching Viktor, with their bodies squared toward him, obviously paying attention to Viktor, not using calming signals. I asked Bonnie to ask the men to move away, which she did. Sharon and Linda asked the men to stay put, and they stayed there. Viktor came close to Dori, but eventually spooked and ran off. I can't know for sure if it was because of the men, but it seems likely. I called Linda and let her know that if Bonnie asked them to do anything in the future, they should be sure to do it because Bonnie has years of experience in this sort of thing. Linda and Sharon got mad and left. In a rescue operation like this, volunteers will have varying ideas of how to catch a dog. I can advise them based on my experience. I try not to alienate people by giving advice contrary to their instincts, but it often happens that people become upset when they feel that your actions are hurting the chances of recovering the dog. If then knew everything I knew, they would trust my judgment, but it's hard to convey all my years of experience in afew short sentences.

So, Viktor took off, and it took us a long time to find him again. I went home and got two traps and the big net. Bonnie had an idea, similar to an idea I had been considering. Bonnie suggested we set up the trap in a narrow spot behind the houses, between a retaining wall and the fence to the mortuary. We had witnessed Viktor using this passage many times. It was an escape route between the safe zones of the undeveloped field andthe grassy area behind the mortuary. I set up the trap against the retaining wall, and I covered the gap between the wall and the fence with the big net. The idea was that Viktor would come trotting along his safe route and find it blocked off except for a small opening, which would turn out to be the humane trap. We first did this technique with Talulabell, a year earlier. If Viktor wanted to go back, there would be a bunch of people blocking his way. We had 13 volunteers for this. Dina and Tonja set up on the far side of the net, in case Viktor managed to get under the net somehow. It was staked down to the ground, but you never know. Tanya and a friend were near the opening, with instructions to ignore Viktor unless he tried to get past them. Then they should make themselves known and encourage him to go into the chute behind the houses. A group of four volunteers was set up to be a moving wall, acting like they just happened to be there, but moving to keep Viktor going into the chute. Two more volunteers were set up on the street just outside the swale where Viktor was sleeping. They would herd him toward the field. The theory was that Viktor was in the habit of using that narrow passageway as an escape route, so he would go that way to stay away from us. Dori and I came up from the south to get Viktor started in the right direction. Unfortunately, Viktor was sound asleep in the ditch, and when we woke him up, he was startled and panicked. He ran west, the wrong way, right past the people who were intended to herd him into the chute. I thought he would go northeast, toward his safe route. If he had seen us coming, and had time to think about it, then he probably would have gone toward his escape route and the trap. Instead, because he panicked, he ran the wrong way, away from us. In hindsight, I should have used my flashlight to locate him and made sure he was aware of our approach so he would have time to choose the right way to go, toward his safe passage. The volunteers followed Viktor around for a while. I could tell that some of them were primed to chase after him. I had to ask them, several times, not to chase him. I was the last one of us to see Viktor that night. He was trotting down the hill to the east, across Sylvan way, toward a new neighborhood. I made the decision to let him go, to leave him alone for the night and let him rest. I got a call later that night that he was seen five blocks north of where I last saw him.

On the 14th, I set up a list of things to do. As I was searching for Viktor, I was conscious of my own fatigue and stress. I felt guilty, because I was responsible for losing Viktor. When my clients are in this situation, I advise them to write things down because they may have diminished concentration and memory. I certainly found that to be the case with me. In the seven days Viktor was on the run, I spent 80 hours looking for him, in addition to at least 100 hours other volunteers contributed. I've worked 80 hours a week in the past when I worked overtime or when I held two jobs, but this was harder. I was always questioning my decisions, wondering if the wrong choice would get Viktor killed. Like the guy with the net. I should have walked up to him and yanked the net out of his hands. Trying to be reasonable with him ended up with Viktor running into traffic and nearly being hit by two cars. I was trying to make all the best decisions while being aware of my diminished capacity. Not being able to sleep much or sleep well also contributed to my fatigue and stress. I was not eating right. I was not getting things done at home. I was not spending time with my other four dogs, and they were telling me that they did not like being ignored. One way I tried to focus my thoughts was to set up a list ofactions and potential actions: 1. Signs up farther out.2. Contact Get Jesse (a local problem solver reporter) about the WhistleGPS failure.3. Check West Seattle blog regularly.4. New craigslist ad.5. Research cost for renting a programmable traffic sign.6. Set up a schedule for volunteers to be on call in the area.7. Set up a log of sightings. When I got home on the night of the 14th, after nearly catching Viktor so many times, watching him all day long, I was so exhausted that I wasn'tfunctioning right. I nearly passed out walking from the car to the house. I fell asleep fast, but it wasn't a restful sleep.

The morning of the 15th, I drove to the area of the last sighting, at 31st and Raymond. As I was approaching the little park there, I got a call fromsomeone who saw Viktor. I pulled up and saw the person calling me, and then I saw Viktor. I got out and tossed chunks of hot dog to him. He came right up to me, although he stayed a safe distance. This was a fine arrangement for Viktor. As someone joked to me, he considered me to bemeals on wheels, his own private caterer, and it was convenient for him that I followed him everywhere he went and brought him treats. I didn'tattempt to capture him at that meeting because I didn't have backup. When he wandered away again, I let him go and watched his movements. Iexplained to people who saw him wandering that we were working on a capture plan.

I actually can't remember all that happened on the 15th. I know I wasvery tired. At one point, I either blacked out for a moment or I had somesort of hallucination. I remember seeing a woman in the little park just eastof the entrance to the cemetery. She was walking two small dogs. I had thethought of giving her a flier for Viktor. I looked down, and then I got outof my car to give her the flier, and she had disappeared. There were no carsor buildings to obscure my view for fifty feet in any direction, but she hadvanished. Did I space out for a second and not realize it? Or was the!177woman with the two dogs never really there? !I do know for sure that Dina came to that area later in the day. Shelocated Viktor and was giving him hot dogs. She gave him 1.5 valiumtablets, hoping he would fall asleep so we could grab him. He wanderedoff, and several volunteers, including Alisa and Renee, kept track of him.Viktor settled against the side of a house at 30th and Graham. When hewould lie down next to the house, the tall groundcover completely hid himfrom view. I'm not sure who's idea it was, but Dina and I decided to tryusing the large net to trap Viktor. Alisa stood just around the corner of thehouse, out of sight. She was going to block his exit if he tried to squeezebetween a shrub and the house. We got the net out of my car and plannedhow we would sneak up on Viktor, hidden by the fence. At first, I plannedfor us to rush up and block him off. Dina imagined she might trip over theedge of the large net and blow our chance. Then I imagined how we couldwalk up slowly and quietly until I was past him, and then I would movequickly toward the wall, blocking him in. We got it all set up, and wepracticed moving in on an imaginary Viktor, represented by my jacket onthe ground. A crowd had gathered and at least two dozen people watchedus from windows and front porches. Sindy was there, too, trying to directpeople around our operation. People were very resistant to go around. Shehad to explain it to them three times before they would understand why wewould ask them to cross the street. Renee sat in a parked car and watchedViktor. She gave us a thumbs up gesture if Viktor's head was down, andshe held out her palm for us to stop if he raised his head. Just as we wereabout to try putting the big net on Viktor, Dina stopped the operation andsaid she didn't feel comfortable doing it. She imagined too many ways itcould go wrong. We decided to try calming signals, rotisserie chicken, hotdogs, and drugs again. !Viktor let me come up and sit down about six feet away from him. Ileaned against a fence. I got him to come within a foot by tossing bits ofhot dog to him. He took the pill, and he wanted to fall asleep, but hemoved a little way away from me before settling in for a nap. A man in ared shirt watched us for over an hour, and he kept moving and bobbing upand down, getting Viktor's attention. I texted with Dina, in oder to remainquiet. She brought me a snappy snare by sneaking up along the fence lineout of sight of Viktor. When I ran out of hot dogs, Renee went and got arotisserie chicken. Dina brought it to me, again sneaking up along the fenceline. She also brought my jacket because sitting on the ground made mecold. Every time Viktor would start to nod off, someone would walk closeto us or a child would scream. I sat there beside him, stuffing him with foodfor over an hour. Two school buses let out right in front of us, one at 6:00and one at 6:20, waking Viktor up but not scaring him away. Who gets out!178of school at 6:20? As I sat there beside Viktor, waiting for an opportunity,dozens of people watched the spectacle, and they refused to be quiet. Iexpected a marching band to come down the street at any moment, sincewe were hoping for quiet. Dina texted me that she would need to leavesoon and that her keys were in my jacket pocket. I don't know why,probably because I was exhausted, but I tossed Dina's keys onto the grassabout six feet away. For some reason, this made Viktor get up and moveaway. Dozens of people and school buses and screaming children didn'tscare him away, but tossing keys quietly onto the grass spooked him. Viktorran off, and we let him go for the night, confident that the drugs had wornoff by then, and wouldn't make him too groggy to avoid cars. After Viktortook off, all the people disappeared, and the intersection was as quiet as acemetery. !We made improvements toour posters by taking oneof Viktor's pictures andpainting the backgroundwhite. This made himmuch easier to distinguishin the pictures. I used thepicture I had taken atQueen Anne and 1st AveNorth. It showed his ears,one up and one down, andhis big-dog body on hislittle short legs. I had aposter on the back of mycar that had the improvedpicture of Viktor and boldlettering that said Do Not Chase. The morning of the 16th, Friday, the 6thday of Viktor's latest adventure, I received several calls about him andfound him near 31st and Graham, a block away from where I'd left him theprevious night. I had hot dogs and valium, and I wanted to lead him to thecemetery, three blocks south, so that he could settle down and take a napwithout a crowd of people making him nervous. I took my time leadinghim there because I was waiting for reinforcements. Bonnie and Amy werecoming in a little while. I lost track of Viktor for a little bit and then foundhim again. I led him down the sidewalk, five feet at a time, by dropping bitsof hot dog in front of him, making a trail toward the cemetery. Bonnie andAmy talked to the kids getting out of school to let them know what wewere doing and ask them to give us some space. It felt like it took a longtime to get him to the cemetery, but it may have been about 45 minutes orso.!179!When we reached the cemetery, I sat down by the grave marker of GaryCooper, but it wasn't High Noon, more like two in the afternoon. I gaveViktor two vallium in bits of hot dog. For the next hour or so, we movedslowly through the cemetery, sitting by this tree or that tree, moving abouttwenty feet each time. Viktor rolled on the grass and stretched. He seemeddrowsy, but he never quite went to sleep. Amy stood guard on Sylvan Waybelow us, in case Viktor decided to go that way. I could get Viktor close tome with treats, but whenever he got drowsy, he would move at least six feetaway before settling down to maybe take a nap. I was able to take a fewnice pictures of him in the parklike cemetery, and video of him rollingaround in the grass. It was a nice day, a warm afternoon for that time ofyear, with high, wispy clouds swooping like brush strokes.

I enjoyed hanging out with Viktor, but he wasn't giving me anopportunity to grab him. At one point, I got up and walked away fromhim. My plan was to walk away towards the north, circle around, and sneakup from the south because the north wind would keep him from smellingme as I approached. I remembered sneaking up on Smilla in the cemeteryin Renton, getting within three feet of her, quietly, and then she suddenlywoke up, probably because she smelled me. As I was telling Bonnie andAmy my plan of sneaking up on Viktor, Amy suggested that I slowly roll!180toward Viktor. Amy said she had caught several dogs that way, sometimesrolling across an entire field. This was a variation of calming signals. I hadtried just lying down on the ground, and dogs had come up to check meout, but I had never rolled up to a dog before. I was willing to give it a try.As I approached from the south, Viktor saw me right away, so sneaking upon him was out of the question. I was getting ready to try to roll across thecemetery toward him--fortunately, all the grave markers were flat on theground--but Viktor decided to wander back toward the noisy, busy housingdevelopment. !!!Viktor settled somewhere out of sight just north of the cemetery. Ittook us a while to locate him in the landscape. Bonnie wanted to try thesnappy snare. I have had a low success rate with the snappy snare. Bonniehad been practicing on her dogs, making a game of it where they would gettreats when she caught them, so I figured Bonnie would have a much betterchance of using the snare successfully. I stood watch behind Viktor, and Isignaled to Bonnie when she should approach and when she should stop.Bonnie sneaked up along the edge of the grass, near a fence and a tallhedge. She was in shadow, less visible, and downwind so that Viktorwouldn't smell someone approaching. I had set my package of hot dogsdown, in order to have less stuff in my pockets, and the crows had foundthe package and were attacking it, making a ruckus. I couldn't decide if thiswas a distraction or if the crows were making cover noise that would helpdisguise Bonnie's approach. Viktor seemed to ignore it. Bonnie creptwithin striking distance, and Viktor popped his head up to chew on somefleas on his flank. He was looking away from Bonnie, unaware she wasthree feet away. His head came back to a normal resting position, givingBonnie the perfect target for the snappy snare, but in a split second, Viktordecided to bite the fleas more, and his head moved away from the pointBonnie was aiming for. The snare glanced off his neck. Bonnie executedperfectly, but it was just bad timing with the fleas. Of course, he spookedand ran, again. At least it wasn't me that spooked him. !It took us about twenty minutes to find him again, in the big park in thecenter of the housing development, near 31st and Graham where westarted the day. Bonnie was of course distressed that she had just missedher chance to catch Viktor, but she was relieved that we found him again.He was in a swale near the play equipment, wedged between a boulder andthe base of a red osier dogwood. Mostly he slept, lifting his head now andthen. I got the idea that if we had ten people, we could surround him andpounce on him in the swale. This was a desperate measure, and inhindsight it seems somewhat foolish. I asked for volunteers on Facebook,!181and it is probably fortunate that I could not round up enough volunteersquickly. Viktor seemed really sound asleep in the ditch. I imagined how Icould sneak up on him from the back side of the boulder and then quicklyreach over and grab him. I started to sneak up, slowly and quietly, andViktor was unaware that I was just about eight feet away from him. Bonniewatched me from a distance. A child started to approach the playequipment, inexplicably screaming as she approached. Why do all thesechildren scream all the time? They probably don't even know. It seems tobe a meme that spreads like a virus, children randomly screaming withoutwarning and without cause. I tried to convey to Bonnie to stop thescreaming child from ruining my chance, using sign language. From thelook on Bonnie's face, she seemed perplexed about the message I wastrying to convey, possibly misunderstanding, justifiably, whether the gesturewas directed at her for some reason. In a moment, it didn't matter anymore because Viktor's head popped up to check out the screaming child,and he looked up right at me. I looked away, like, "I'm not doin' nothin'. Ijust happened to be standing here. I wasn't thinking about pouncing onyou while you slept." Viktor wasn't buying it, and he moved away in theditch.!

Then I went and got the humane trap. I didn't think it would work,since we had already caught Viktor in the humane trap once. It wouldn'thurt to try it, though. I set it up near the swale, with some tripe as bait.Viktor eventually got out of the swale and walked toward where Bonniehappened to be standing. She tried calming signals and treats, and Viktorwas coming closer until someone else came along and scared him away. Hewent to a different swale, half a block away, and settled down for a nap.You would never know he was there if you hadn't seen him go in. I movedthe trap over to where he was sleeping, but every dog that came by stole thebait meant for Viktor. As it got dark, Viktor wandered away again. Dorimade another attempt at calming signals and treats, much later, but again apedestrian came along and disrupted the process. We left Viktor'sneighborhood, Friday night, and planned on making a big attempt onSunday. We would have hopefully a dozen volunteers, and we would haveback up plans. We would make up signs to ask people to stay quiet and stayaway, and we would have volunteers to redirect people as much as possible.Saturday would be a day of observing Viktor and keeping people fromchasing him, and Sunday would be the official capture day, with traps andnets and the whole nine yards. Even though I was sad about missing somany chances to catch Viktor, I was encouraged that he stayed in the areaand let us find him fairly quickly. I was optimistic about our chances ofcatching him. I actually slept that night better than I had in a while. !Saturday, Dawna and I arrived at about the same time, and I just got acall that he was sighted in the same area. We looked around, but it tookanother hour before Dawna finally located him. I went there and fed himhot dogs. He was happy to see me, in relative terms, and not overlycautious or worried. Even after he finished his hot dogs, he just rested onthe grass near me. I think that was the life Viktor wanted: wandering thestreets and having his dedicated catering service bring him tasty treatseverywhere he went. When Viktor wandered off, I let him go. This wasjust going to be a day of observation and building trust. I had made halfpagefliers telling people what we were doing with Viktor and asking themnot to chase him. About an hour later, Dawna brought me a beef soft tacofrom Taco Time, and some Mexi-fries. I was glad for the Mexi-fries, butbeing a vegetarian, I decided to give the taco to Viktor. I don't know whythey call it a taco when it looks like a burrito. Anyway, I unwrapped it andplaced it on the ground in front of Viktor. He looked like it was Christmas.He gently picked up the whole taco, and trotted off a little way behind abush to enjoy his treasure. As he walked away, you could see the tacosticking out on either side. I looked at that spot after he was done with hismeal, and you could see that he carefully picked out the lettuce and left itbehind. Viktor wandered off again, and I followed along, handing out fliersand keeping people away from him. About an hour later, Dawna brought!183him a second taco. We waited until he woke up from his nap, and then I satdown near him and broke off pieces of the taco to toss to him. He suredid like those beef soft tacos. When I tossed one chunk of it to him hedidn't really react the way I would expect a dog to. If I tossed part of ataco to one of my dogs, he would chomp it in mid air and swallow it in afraction of a second. Although Viktor did enjoy his tacos, he just let thispiece of taco land right on his head. Then he ate it off the ground after thebounce. He had a smear of sour cream on his head for a while after that. !Dawna offered to stay a while and keep an eye on Viktor while I wenthome and let my dogs out. Then I would come back for the night shift andDawna could leave for the day. After about an hour, I got the messagefrom Dawna that Viktor was napping between two houses in a perfect placeto box him in. I came back as quick as I could, and he was still sleepingthere. He was right up against a house, sound asleep, probably dreaming oftacos. The two houses were about 12 feet apart. The far end of the spacewas fenced off. Our big net would close off that space. I got the big netout of my car and tried folding it different ways so that it would be easy tohold and also so it would stay down on the ground so Viktor wouldn't justscoot under it. I went over the plan with Dawna a couple of times, and inabout five minutes, we were ready to go. I could picture this plan workingvery well. Sometimes, like when I was thinking of having ten people gangtackleViktor, I can't really picture how something will work out, but I justhope for the best. As we got ready with the net, I had a clear image of itworking. It was possible that Viktor could get under the net, but there wasa good chance it would work. We approached very quietly, keeping the netoff the ground so it wouldn't make any dragging noises. It rained gently,masking our footsteps with white noise. The sun was setting behind theovercast sky, and the twilight helped us be less noticeable. Viktor didn'tmove a muscle as we moved the net in place. He was trapped, but he wasstill asleep. I moved forward to put the net right over him, and as I steppedon the gravel, the noise woke him up. He panicked and ran immediately.He was focused on me and tried to get away from me, going closer toDawna, who was around the corner of the house. Viktor ran right into thenet and got himself tangled up. He was struggling to get himself free, andI pounced on him. I threw my body on his little 35-pound body andsmothered him. He squirmed in the net. I grabbed his harness with onehand and his collar with the other hand. He had gotten his head out of thenet and was about to escape again when I got a firm grip on him. Henipped my arm as he struggled, and gave me a souvenir. He also poopedand peed all over the place as he panicked. I grabbed him up under myarm, I'm not sure quite how, and I carried him to my car with one handfirmly on the harness and the other on his collar. Dawna opened the backhatch, I climbed in, and Dawna closed us in the car. Viktor was caught. We!184both smelled terrible, but he was caught. He went up to the frontpassenger seat and just curled up and laid down. It was a struggle for me toget between the two front seats, but I wasn't about to open any doors, and Ieventually got into the drivers seat. !There was my Viktor, on the seat beside me. I was so relieved andhappy to see him. He seemed disappointed at being caught, and not at allhappy about being trapped in the car with me. He didn't fight or struggle,though. I rolled down the window just enough to talk to Dawna, and Ithanked her for spotting the opportunity and helping me catch Viktor. Atthat point, I was pretty sure Viktor would spend the rest of his life with me,whether he wanted to or not. I knew he would prefer to just wander thestreets and be fed tacos, but I couldn't imagine anyone else being able tomanage a dog so determined to escape. A fenced yard wouldn't hold him.Viktor came home with me, and I used two leashes, one on his collar andone on his harness, as I escorted him into the house and into a closedkennel inside the house. Viktor is now kenneled whenever he is in thehouse, which seems to suit him just fine. It has now been two months sincewe captured him the second time, and he is only warming up to me veryslowly, if at all. He wears two GPS trackers, and he is always walked on twoleashes. I can pet him, but he doesn't admit to liking it. I sit beside hisopen kennel and read The Man Without Qualities. Every day, when we goout for our walks, I worry about tripping and dropping the leashes orsomething. Every day, I tell Viktor that I love him, and he ignores me. !Many people helped capture Viktor, including Alisa, Amy, Bonnie, Dan,Dawna, Dina, Dori, Harrison's mom, Jeannine, Jenny, Linda, Nancy, Renee,Sharon, Sindy, Stacie, Tanya, Terri, Tonja, Yolanda, and at least five otherpeople whose names I can't recall. Seattle Animal Control Officers alsospent some time trying to catch Viktor. Over seven days, I invested 80hours and other volunteers contributed at least 120 hours. Probably morethan fifty people reported sightings of Viktor. We used our training andexperience from many other stray dog captures, such as Sophie, Tuck,Stella, Smilla, and Jackson. !!One of the lessons learned in finding Viktor is that it would not berealistic to expect to hire someone like me, like Three Retrievers Lost PetRescue, and expect a paid searcher to simply go find your dog in a situationlike this. Ideally, that would happen, but the search dog tracks right up tothe lost dog only about 20% of the time. The other times, a search dogonly provides a clue, a direction of travel. The search dog is only one wayto find your dog, and you still need to do all the other things like posters,Facebook, Craigslist, fliers, checking shelters, setting traps, going door to!185door, putting a sign on the back of your car, and simply spending the timeout there looking. In some cases, a search dog is not even a viable tool, ifthe lost dog keeps looping over old trails or if the scent trail is too old, forexample. It took over 200 volunteer hours to find Viktor the second time.I could not afford to hire myself for 200 hours of work. Even if someonewas willing to pay Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue for 200 of work to findtheir dog, (roughly $5,000) I can't devote that much time to one case whenthe phone rings every day with a new lost pet. The optimal way to use aservice such as Three Retrievers is to have the expert do those things thatonly the expert can do, such as working the search dog, giving advice anddirection, and placing the trap in the best location. For everything else, theprofessional is an adviser, and it is up to the owner of the lost dog toassemble the friends and volunteers necessary to mount a proper searcheffort. Quite often, people want to pay $250 for a search dog and handler,and have a final result that the lost dog is found. I would certainly be happyif I could find everyone's pet in three hours, but it doesn't seem to be arealistic expectation. Some people don't want to learn how to conduct aproper search; they just want someone to come out and do it for them. Inmost cases, such an approach will not give you the best chances of findingyour dog. !What else could we have done better in capturing Viktor?1. Obviously, the little cat door should have been well and truly sealed.2. Viktor should have had a working GPS tracker.3. Communications were a problem sometimes when people didn't gettext messages. In a future operation such as this, one person should be incharge of communications and making sure that everyone can get themessage. That might mean that one or more persons acts as a relay,repeating messages to those who aren't technologically capable of receivingthe message through the main channel.4. The signs should have had better pictures from the start.5. The signs could have had bolder writing if a fatter marker had beenused.6. Volunteers should have been advised, clearly and plainly, that theywould need to follow instructions from team leaders even if they didn'tnecessarily agree with those instructions.7. Car signs could have been clearer and larger.8. It would help if we had a better understanding of how various drugswould affect a dog.9. Large signs could be made up in advance, telling people to give usspace and stay quiet during the capture attempt.10. A contingency fund could be set aside to pay for expenses in a caselike this.11. I don't know how it could be done, but it would have been very!186helpful if I was able to get Viktor to like and trust me before he wentmissing.12. It would take some thought and planning, but there needs to be a setof hand signals specifically for catching stray dogs. This could be writtenup and distributed as a PDF so people could have it right on their phonesand refer to it in real time.13. It would have been helpful to schedule volunteers in advance, inshifts, so we would know when we would have help available.14. I should have just walked right up and grabbed the fishing net outof the Good Samaritan's hands, to prevent Viktor from being chased offthat day.15. I personally need to have a reserve fund so that I can afford to taketime off in the case of an emergency like this. It was a strain financially.16. Ideally, we would have a drone available with quiet propellers andmotors, with an infrared camera.17. A net gun would have been useful here. Unfortunately, they costabout $4,000.18. Having more trained volunteers would have helped. UBS canconduct training sessions to prepare for situations like this.19. Viktor's harness should have had my phone number written in largenumbers so that someone could read it without having to get too close tohim.20. Keep a map of everywhere we put up posters so that we can goback later and take them down. !In spite of the little things that went wrong, we did a lot of things rightfor Viktor. Mostly, we were never going to give up on him, no matter what.We would have caught him eventually, somehow. Our experience withViktor should help us avoid future escapes and speed up our recoverytimes. Thank you, Viktor, for letting us catch you twice. Don't ever leaveme again. !!!